I wear one round my neck now all the time – that’s my guardian angel. I said “That’s not an angel, Emma.” And she said, “Oh, you can have an angel next time.” One day, she phoned and said she was coming to pick me up. I’m of the age where, when we were younger, you did what your husband told you. I lost my husband, Len, last year, just before Christmas. She said, “Nan, I could do one on you.” I said: “Not likely.” Then: “Well, I might, one of these days. My granddaughter Emma is a tattoo artist. Nancy Venables, 86, lives in Wolverhampton and got a tattoo earlier this year Photograph: Emma Venables ‘When you’re 86 you can do what you like’ Nancy Venables wanted an angel but says it looks like a fairy. I wish I had believed earlier that I could decorate my back. This is my body, I don’t care what anybody else thinks. The wonderful thing about getting older is you have the freedom to be whoever you want to be. I want to get one on my ankle where I have scars from when I was fed intravenously for eight months. It makes me feel that, at this age, I get to be a little bit sexy. I actively look for dresses that are off-the-shoulder so I can show it off. Now, I don’t know if they are staring at my scars, or this awesome tattoo. I have always been open about my scars – I would never try to cover them up – but it does get tiresome to be stared at. It’s basically me saying, “This is my body – I’m going to celebrate it, whatever is going on with it!” I chose a sun because my favourite song is Here Comes the Sun, and a good friend calls me a solar-powered person.
Guardian angel tattoos skin#
I wanted to pick the very worst of the skin grafts for my tattoo, and I was thrilled that they could tattoo on that area. I finally just said, “To hell with it – I’m going to do it.” My daughter has five tattoos and she had been on my case for ages about getting one. My father had very strong feelings about the way women should look, and it did not include having tattoos, so I grew up with that. I had extensive skin grafts, and have scars over about 60% of my body. When I was seven, I was burned very badly after an accident with our gas stove, and spent almost a year in hospital. Sarah Browne is in her 60s, lives in London and got a tattoo last year Photograph: Anna Gordon/The Guardian ‘This is me saying this is my body – I’m going to celebrate it!’ Sarah Browne has a sun tattoo on her upper back, over her skin grafts. That’s our tribute to Emily, bringing up her son. Every year on my birthday, I get a little star tattooed near Emily’s name, and my plan is, for the sake of my grandson, to get my arm covered in stars because I want to live until he’s at least 21. We are bringing up our grandson who has just turned eight. I can’t explain why, at the age of 67, I should need a comfort blanket, but it helps. Then I grab my arm and take a minute and calm down, then I’m usually OK. Grief is there all the time, but occasionally something will trigger it and it hits you like a wave.
When somebody says to me, “What’s that on your arm?” it’s an excuse to talk about Emily. When you lose somebody, the worst possible thing is when people stop talking about them. I find that talking about her is the greatest relief. A lot of people loved her because she had a lot of love to give. She worked very hard, she brought up her little boy until he was five, until she couldn’t, on her own. She was a very bright, vivacious person, always the life and soul of any party. I had her name tattooed on my arm on my 65th birthday, three days after she died.Ī few weeks later, I came up with this little saying, “Sometimes the star that shines brightest, shines but briefly.” I had that tattooed underneath her name. I wanted something that I could wake up with in the morning and go to sleep with at night. The only thing I always wear is my wedding ring, but I didn’t want just another piece of jewellery. It struck me that I wanted something with me that meant Emily was with me for ever. My daughter Emily died in January 2019, from breast cancer, when she was 37. Neil Davies, 67, lives in West Sussex and got his first tattoo in 2019 Photograph: Graeme Robertson/The Guardian ‘When somebody says, “What’s that on your arm?” it’s an excuse to talk about Emily’ Neil Davies has his daughter’s name, Emily, tattooed on his arm and adds a star on his birthday each year.
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